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Shutting off the chemical taps

Fri., Feb. 26, 2016

Re: Defining a victory over cancer, Feb. 16

Defining a victory over cancer, Feb. 16

I was surprised to see your “Timeline” and the words of those attempting to define “a victory over cancer.” Your timeline omits important discoveries, such as the multiple environmental exposures that cause cancer, exposed in detail by the World Health Organization for many decades, from the role of endocrine disruptors, to that of most industrial chemicals, pesticides and other food additives, that still continue, largely unchecked, because of corporate interests.

In 1978, Dr. Epstein published a book about the “dirty dozen” routine cancer-causing exposures, and since then there have been multiple scientific publications about many cancer-causing substances, beyond cigarettes, and involving many exposures we cannot control. So why focus only on “the cure” without addressing the needed prevention?

Some years back a British doctor spoke at a major science meeting: he said the “war on cancer” was like an army of people trying to clean up the water on a kitchen floor, while no one thought to turn off the tap that caused the sink to overflow.

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The first step toward a victory over cancer would be turning off the many chemical “taps” to are the basis of most, though not all cancers.

Laura Westra, professor emerita (Philosophy), University of Windsor

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